Paul Symons has worked as a Digital Marketer for 15 years and currently works as the head of digital for an agency. He recently took up app development as a hobby to continue his learning.

Paul’s recent release, Plasma Pig was awarded App of the Week by Corona Labs in June 2013. In his guest piece, Paul writes about the lessons he learned on generating a profit in a competitive market and on developing for the sheer enjoyment of making games.

It’s an exciting time to be a mobile app developer. Through the magic of mobile and Bluetooth support on devices, it’s now possible to use controllers to play games, in addition to the standard touchscreen and accelerometer. Read further to learn about Corona SDK’s core support for OUYA, Green Throttle, GameStick, SHIELD, and other human interface devices.

Today, we had some very special guests visit the Corona office: game legends John Romero and Brenda Romero.

It was really inspiring to meet them. Together, they’ve had a profound influence on the industry that still reverberates today. John designed such seminal games as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, and co-founded id Software which holds a near mythical place in the pantheon of game development.

This week’s tutorial introduces Corona’s new “physics contact”, a method that allows you to access a specific collision — and four new properties pertaining to it — before the collision actually occurs. Among other applications, this can be used to solve the classic “one-sided platform” in 2D platformer games such as Super Mario Brothers, Doodle Jump, and more.

Today’s tutorial covers Corona blend modes using the “object.blendMode” API, and illustrates how to use them for creative visual effects within your app. Whether you want to achieve a glowing effect like fire or a subtle shadow effect, blend modes can be a powerful tool in your Corona arsenal. This tutorial steps you through the three Corona blend modes, the effect of each, and the technical algorithms involved.